A comic book launch featuring two very different visions of the end days, spanning the political spectrum:

Claudia Dávila's spOILed is a peak oil parable about a world without petroleum. A peek at that here.


Salgood Sam and Jim Munroe's THEREFORE REPENT! is a post-Rapture graphic novel about a world without God. preview here on comicspace


The creators will be in attendance, and their original artwork from the comics will be on display. Books, original artwork and silkscreened posters will be on sale. This event kicks off the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, which culminates in the weekend fair of international artists on the U of T campus.

Thursday, August
16th, 8pm-10pm. Free.
Tequila Bookworm (512 Queen St. W., upstairs)

(The Bookworm's new location is ten doors west of their old place, and the upstairs features lots of cozy rooms and an outdoor patio to enjoy their local brews.)

BIOS

Born in Santiago, Chile, Claudia Dávila moved to Canada in 1973 and grew up in the culture-rich cities of Montreal and Toronto. She began drawing and painting at an early age, and was fortunate to attend art-focused public high school Wexford C.I., followed by York University for Visual Arts. She emerged to develop a multi-faceted career of graphic design, art direction, illustration, painting and cartooning. Five years were dedicated to the award-winning children's magazines Chirp, Chickadee and Owl, first as Associate Art Director and subsequently as Art Director. She is presently creating a book-art piece relating to survival in Toronto after the end of petroleum energy, for which she received a Toronto Arts Council grant. Claudia's art is informed by her various interests, such as the environment, social politics, yoga, vegetarian cuisine, ayurveda, and metaphysics, as well as the issue of the end of fossil fuels, and as such is a member of the Toronto Peak Oil Discussion Group.

girloftheknowing.blogspot.com/
me@claudiadavila.com

Salgood Sam is Maxim Douglas backwards: Toronto-born, Montreal-based artist and author. Since the early '90s he's worked professionally for Marvel, DC and other commercial comic publishers as well as in the alternative world of zines and underground comix. In recent years his work has appeared in a variety of comics, such as Terminator 3: Before the Rise (Beckett Comics), the bloody swashbuckling Sea of Red (Image Comics), and Revolution on the Planet of the Apes (Mr Comics). In 2005 he was nominated for the Doug Wright Award for Best Emerging Talent for his self-published book RevolveR, and in 2006 he received a grant from The Canada Council for the Arts to complete another graphic novel currently in the works. He's also worked in animation and as an illustrator, but his first love has always been pictures that talk with balloons.

http://www.salgoodsam.com/
salgood@gmail.com

Jim Munroe had his first novel Flyboy Action Figure Comes With Gasmask published by HarperCollins. Despite their interest in his second book, he was uncomfortable with the corporate ownership and went back to his indie press roots. He founded No Media Kings, named in dishonour of right-wing media magnate Rupert Murdoch, and published his next book in Canada himself - it sold just as well, made him more money, and drew attention to the issues of media consolidation and the alternatives to it. His do-it-yourself publishing resource website created an international network of people through which he was able to found The Perpetual Motion Roadshow - a volunteer-run circuit that sent a hundred people on seven-city tours. He recently released a lo-fi sci-fi no-budget movie he wrote and co-produced called Infest Wisely.

nomediakings.org/therefore_repent/
jim@nomediakings.org

Labels: book launches, can-con, conventions, events, Ontario, Quebec, Toronto